Passion
by savifa
Summary: Midgar isn't your usual 'city of dreams' but what if there was something there that could change your view on it forever? [RenoxTifa with a touch of other pairings]


copyright thing: I don't own Final Fantasy VII. I don't own the characters. Square has all the legal copyrights to them...blahblah...I'm just borrowing a few for this one-shot. I just wanna write shiny things about the character I like. :3

author's note; Oh god. I think I started writing this a couple of month's ago, and I really need write Chapter 2 of it and get it up 'cause this is one of these multi-chapter fics that I wanna finish and stuff. It'd be be fun, you know, and I know I'm running with the cliche'd Reno-knows-Tifa-in-Midgar thing but...bear with me please:3; I can't think much of anything else to run with it, and it just adds lots more tension between them, to allow them for future snark and bitch-out wars. Mwaha.

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**prologue. tinted windows**

He could not have been that much older than her, maybe by five or so years to make him the right age for drinking, but it still always made her wonder his actual age. He was a person that someone really had no chance of forgetting and it would be hell if someone would run into him on the street; he was a Turk, working for ShinRa and doing all the dirty work for them and she was just a girl trying to get by in her livings with Midgar by running a tiny little bar in Sector Seven (which also doubled as a headquarters for AVALANCHE.)

How could she forget him? He had made a big impression on her after they had met and talked—or, rather, him trying to flirt with the young sixteen year-old while a big, muscle-bound black man stood by the doors of the bar and just glared death on the man. But she seemed to pay his flirtatiousness no mind at all, laughing it off and blushing like a fool at the simplest of comments (dirty or clean) and just let him have his fun. He was a paying customer so why not give him the pleasure he wanted? That and as the bar hostess and owner the motto of 'The Customer is Always Right' had always seemed to come into play.

And as much as Barret seemed to protest letting the loud red-head into the bar Tifa would just shake her head and remind him of Marlene and how they needed the money to raise the little girl, to try and give her whatever best they could get in the slums.

Sure it was no extravagant life and if they had enough maybe, just maybe, one day they could move away from the slums and live i _above_ /i the plates, but until that day came she would always just reprimand the older man and keep reminding him of his little girl.

And every night after her little spat with Barret the bar would open at its usual time and the red-head would saunter his way in and play the flirt while ordering his drinks. In odd ways it was sort of endearing to the teenager and in another way it was sort of annoying; she didn't mind the attention at all, it was sort of nice to have someone flirt with her like that but on the other hand she just wished he would order and then leave.

It was a love-hate sort of thing she had with her customers.

Yet it really wasn't until he had been at the Seventh Heaven for a little more than four months that something seemed to hit a switch in her, make her take notice of him a little more.

He was there and with _a woman_. Being with said woman made her feel like it was taking him away from the usual attention he gave her and was doubling it on whomever the hell the long haired, bubbly laughing blonde was. She had never seen him come into the bar with a woman. Sometimes he would come with a tall and silent bald man but other than that never ever with anyone else. Never. And it was with a grimly put smile that she served them drink and almost—almost, as it had been the most tempting thing in the world to do—thought of just kicking him out for the rest of the night and telling him to take the little street corner whore to some other bar.

But she didn't. She couldn't.

He was a paying customer and unless given the best of reasons she just was not allowing herself to throw him out.

Around closing time Barret was helping her clean up and he had noted the grim look settled on her face and asked her about it, trying to slowly pry his way into seeing what was wrong. She had almost snapped but in the calmest of voices answered him with a simple 'nothing. There is nothing at all wrong.' Before continuing herself with busy tasks and chores of cleaning down the bar when in all honesty she knew that she was jealous.

Jealous, her? Why she had nothing to be jealous of! It was not like he was her boyfriend or anything… An attractive man like him had every right to have a woman dangling off of his arm like that blonde had been.

_What if I want to be that person?_

Her head shook to her own mental question. _I can't be._

_Why not? You're, if not, far better than that woman that was with him._

A soft chuckle as she tried to remove a pesky spot from the wooden counter. _Because I don't know him that well, and he doesn't know me that well? Hell, we aren't even on a first name basis. He's just a customer and I'm just the hostess he has fun flirting with._

_Mmhmm, right. And that gives you enough reason not to try to get to know him better?_

She sighed and looked at Barret, taking notice of the fact he had disappeared. He was probably gone to check up on Marlene, see if the little girl was sleeping well during the night and not having any nightmares. _Yeah it does._

_Right. You're sucha bundle of joy, Tifa._

There was a mental frown as the girl tossed the dusting rag to the counter and snorted. _Aren't I? You try having your hometown burnt down and nearly being killed by a man a boy you had a crush on idolized. Gee, losing my parents and my home and not knowing what came about with the boy sure does make me all the happy type of person! Thank you mind, I love you._

Then there was silence in her brain and she sighed with a shake of her head. Thank god for that… Having a fight with herself was a bad enough sign to show that she was probably losing it. Damn. How pitiful was—

—turning her attention toward the sound of the bar door opening Tifa let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, sir." As tired and grim feeling and stressed as she was Tifa still had it in her to try and sound nice. "We just closed about fifteen minutes ago, so the bar isn't open. Think you can come back tomorrow night?"

Tilting her head in the direction of the door soft red-brown eyes met calm blue-green ones and it was just a heart-stopping moment. Not for him but for her; what in the name of all that was holy was he doing there after closing hours? Was he crazy? Did he have a damn death wish via Barret? Because that guy would probably clobber him if he had come back to try anything funny with Tifa.

Barret looked at her like a daughter and would do anything to protect her like a father should.

"Oh… Uh…" She blinked, almost at a loss for words. "You…should probably leave…" Oh yeah, nice. Good going, just tell him that he had to go away. Idiot.

"Should I?"

It was almost like he was challenging her to give him a positive answer to that and the girl just frowned a bit and sighed; whatever, he won.

"I guess not… Come on, sit at the bar and if you want something I'll make you--"

"—kinda just wanted to talk."

Huh?

Halting in her cleaning of that still-not-removed spot Tifa blinked at the man and tilted her head just a little to the left and gave a small head nod to the stool. When he moved over to sit she leaned back against the case of liquor and crossed her arms against her chest. "Talk about what?"

"…just talk."

"Blunt, aren't you?"

"Can be when I wanna be." He blinked at her with a half-smirk, eyeing over what all he could see of her. For someone so young she sure was attractive as hell…she had a nice rack too. Pretty big but they still looked like they were developing. Ah, puberty, not really a girl's best friend but for a guy it was the one thing they seemed to look forward to have front row seats for. But with a more serious look he poked out a finger at her and made a sound of thought. "You looked awfully pissy while y'were working. Looked like you wanted to rip someone's head off or somethin' of the sort."

He had seen enough pissed of women to last him a lifetime. "So did y'get dumped by your boyfriend or something? Or were you just in a bad fucking mood as it was, and something just made it worse?"

Great, butt your way into her life. Or so was yelling her brain at the man for even daring to speak like that.

"Does it matter?" She blinked and stared half-blankly at him and pierced her lips in a thoughtful manner. "Not like if I told you it would make a different." Even if it did deal with him.

"Shit, girl." He was staring at her with disbelieving eyes. "Try to be nice to you and y'get god damn pissed at me."

"Not pissed," she informed him with a frown, "just…" How could she explain that she was jealous—jealous? Haha, her mind was laughing at her now for admitting it—and didn't like the fact that he had been focusing his attention on someone else that night?

God she was pitiful…

"Just that…"

"…y'ain't got to say a thing."

Her head tilted a bit more and she raised a small brow at him. Oh, damned if he knew that she was jealous and that easy to read… She just wanted to go and crawl into a hole now and maybe even die. Second guy in her life she barely knew enough about and had a crush on? God, yeah, she was pitiful if he could read her that well.

"Why don't you…" He paused when he saw the thoughtful look on her face and grinned a bit. "You listenin'?"

"Uh-huh."

"'Kay." He started the proposition again, "why don't you go out with me tomorrow?"

"…" Say the what? Go out with him. Go out.With him.

Him.

Himhimhim.

Oh…wow.

Blinking and swallowing the girl just sort of stared at him with an almost disbelieving look. How was she was suppose to answer that? Was he asking her out—of course he was asking her out, that's what the question meant. But was he asking her out on a date? (A date? Why the hell would he ask her out on a date?) And if he was then what would Barret think and say? (Did he really have to know? Couldn't she keep it a little secret from him?)

Maybe…

"…okay." Her lips curved into a smile. "I'd like that."

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author's note2; If...you wanna be a shiny person? I'd love you lots for leaving me a review. x3 


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